


Seven Turns Toward Where You're Dreaming

by dizzy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-27
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-16 01:05:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vala's been gone for almost a year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Turns Toward Where You're Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [](http://community.livejournal.com/stargateland/profile)[**stargateland**](http://community.livejournal.com/stargateland/) big bang challenge. And I also must #thankjo for ~~believing that I really could write over 1000 words of pure smut~~ providing emotional support and beta duties along the way!

Vala shows back up on the fourth of January after being away for almost a year. She looks tired and dirty and too thin but her smile is as wide as ever. She stalks down the gate ramp like she owns it, a flickering glance around the room and then up to the observation area, giving Harriman a little wave. Her eyes land on Cameron next and her smile grows, warms. She walks right up to him and kisses him full on the mouth. "A familiar face! And what a lovely one it is."

"Vala." Cam says, gently pushing her back. His hand touches bare shoulder through a tear in her shirt. It's not the only rip. Her clothes are tattered, dirty. This is barely the same woman that came through in leather and boots the first time he'd seen her, but the eyes (despite being dark rimmed from exhaustion) are the same. "I hate to see what the other guy looks like."

She winks, receptive to the snark, to the sarcasm. "You certainly do. Where's Daniel? Didn't you tell him I was coming?"

A year is a long time at the SGC. He's seen people come and go, enemies rise and suffer defeat. He's got new scars, new stories to tell. He's got a new team, and Jackson isn't on it. Cam shakes his head. "Transferred. He's in Atlantis now."

She sighs, disappointment obvious on her face. "Fine, fine."

"You planning on staying, or is this just a pit stop?" Cam still has his hand on her. He lets it drop from her shoulder to her upper arm, testing without meaning to, feeling the thinness of the the limb, no padding at all there. It's just muscle and sinew and bone.

"Pit... stop." She wrinkles her nose up. "What did I tell you about those earth phrases?"

He rewords it in terms she's familiar with. "Did you just come for a shower and a meal? Drop in, say hi, hit the road again? Or are you sticking around?"

"A shower and a meal?" Her face brightens. "Why, thank you for offering! You know just what to say to a girl."

*

Landry insists on Lam giving her the once over before Vala is allowed either a shower or a meal. Unfortunately, she's in line behind SG-6 and SG-12, both having come back from PX6-253 with some sort of stomach bug.

Cam waits with her for a few minutes. He leaves and comes back with a hamburger wrapped in a napkin and a cup of jello. She inhales the hamburger, licking her fingers after, and then digs in to the jello.

She's so much thinner, almost skeletal. He wants to ask her what has happened, where did she go, why did she go. And he'll ask - he just knows better than to do it in front of a room full of people. Putting her on the spot won't get him the answers he wants. It'll get her defensive and Vala's dangerous when she feels cornered.

Well, she dangerous even when she's not cornered, but especially so when she's cornered. The claws come out and you don't even know it until they're buried in your gut.

Besides, she was a member of his team, and that stands for something. He's not sure what exactly, but something.

"Thank you." She says, taking a deep breath. Her face twists into almost a grimace and her hand goes to her stomach. "Oh... ouch. That's not pleasant."

He gives her a questioning look.

"That's more sustenance than I've had at one time in weeks," she explains.

He has to laugh, even though she glares at him and pouts.

He points beside her. "So lay down. You're on a bed."

She considers it and then does so, stretching out her long legs. She's wearing shoes but they're of some sort of cloth, barely an inch think on the bottom. He makes note of everything she'll need. Her sizes are probably still on file.

He waits until her eyes are closed and he's sure she's asleep before leaving again.

*

He's left word for Lam to send her to the SG-1 showers. It doesn't take him long to track down what she'll need. BDUs and a t-shirt, clean underwear, socks and shoes and one sparkly pink barrette. He's the one that packed up her stuff when she took off. It's in one of the storage closets in big plastic bins with a number written on them that he knows by heart. It's not like he goes and visits her belongings or anything... he'd just known not to rule out an eventual return.

He thinks he should probably call Jackson and let him know that Vala's back, but he's still a little bitter about Jackson hopping the first train out of Dodge once Vala was gone, and more or less taking Carter with him. Jackson has enough connections left at the SGC that he'll know before the day is out, anyway, and if he doesn't Cam will call him once he's done talking to Vala himself.

He leaves the things for her on the bench outside of the showers. He has Lam call him once Vala has left the infirmary, waits and times it so that he doesn't run into her.

"What's the verdict, Doc?"

"Are you asking about Vala Mal Doran, SGC contract employee, or Vala Mal Doran, alien visitor?" Lam asks. The difference is obvious; she won't disclose medical information about an SGC worker without them being present.

"No details. Just give me the basics. Is she okay?" Cam says.

"Malnourished and dehydrated. A few broken bones that appear to have been healed by hand device some time in the past six months." Lam says. "Nothing serious or untreatable."

Cam breathes out, a tension he hadn't even realized existed suddenly relaxing. "Okay. Thanks."

*

Landry wants a man with her at all times, but Cam fights him on it. In the end, the compromise is that Cam will escort her around the base.

It's almost a relief. If he's lucky, he can even manage to do it without Vala realizing that's what he's doing.

She looks almost like her old self when she comes out of the SG-1 showering unit. The uniform is indeed looser than it used to be on her, which is saying a lot considering even before she was barely on the sizing chart at all, but everything else is good. She smiles when she sees him and takes his arm. "I've had the shower, now for a meal?"

"Thought the burger earlier gave you a stomach ache."

"Sometimes, Cameron, things are worth the pain you suffer later. I've been eating gulta worms from Ersis for the past week." She says, making such a face that he's left to conclude gulta worms aren't exactly a delicacy.

"You do remember what commissary food tastes like, don't you?" He says, teasing.

"Well, if you're offering to take me out somewhere better..."

"Didn't say that, did I?"

"No but I'm quite hoping you will." She looks up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

"You're barely cleared to be on the base yet, much less to leave it." He says. "Maybe in a few days. Once Landry is confident you aren't pulling some scheme."

Her grip on his arm tightens. Her voice is quiet. "No scheme. Not this time."

"I believe you." He says, without a moment's hesitation.

She looks almost surprised.

*

Despite the enthusiasm, she only picks at her food.

"So why did you leave?" Cam finally asks.

She looks up at him. He's seen that resignation on her face before. It twists something inside of him.

"I had things that needed to be taken care of." She says, speaking slowly and choosing her words carefully. "When I came here the first time, I did not intend on staying."

"But you do now?"

She holds up a finger and wags it at him. "Don't interrupt, Cameron. What would your dear mother say?"

He rolls his eyes at her.

"When I came the first time, I was sorely lacking in funds and running from more than one foe looking to collect on debt." She says, and stops, as if that's it.

"So, what? You went and paid your debts?"

"Do you not know me at all." She feigns shock. "Of course I didn't pay my debts. I did, however, ensure that no more collecting would be done."

"But..."

"But?"

"Vala, the shape you were in when you got here. There's more to this story."

She looks back down and stabs a bean a little too hard. Her fork clanks against the plate.

"Fine." He relents are a few seconds. "Storytime's over for now. I have something to tell Landry."

"Thank you," she murmurs.

"Don't thank me." He says. "I still want to know."

*

Jackson calls him the next morning. He gets a half hour lecture, another half hour of why he needs to watch himself because Vala is probably up to something, and then another ten minutes of questions about how she is and what all she's told him.

Cam gives him half the story, which isn't much at all, considering he's only gotten maybe half himself.

Jackson doesn't offer to come back, and Cam doesn't ask him to. It's true that Atlantis is not the distance that it once was, but sometimes it still feels like another world.

Vala surprises him by not asking about Daniel again. He halfway suspects that she might be getting information from a source other than him.

Landry clears her after a thorough debriefing. The story she gives Landry is a glossed over version of what she told him, though she's stockpiled enough knowledge about various potentially hostile races and sources of naquadah that she will be a resource.

After the debriefing, Cam meets with Landry.

"Do you want her back on your team, son?" Landry asks.

"Yes, sir." Cam says, stranding straight, shoulders back. There's no hesitation in his voice.

*

SG-1's next mission runs long. A two days jaunt onto an uncharted planet turns into six days.

He's not entirely surprised to see her waiting outside the gateroom when he gets back. She grabs onto his arm with both of hers. "I've been so lonely. Please tell me that you'll take me off of this base. I forgot entirely how it felt to not be allowed to breathe fresh air. You people are worse than-"

"Vala." He says sternly, halting the flow of words out of her mouth. The rest of his team, not yet properly introduced, are staring at her like she's... well, something more strange than alien, which by now is actually not that strange to them at all.

She seems supremely unconcerned with meeting the people with him, even when he tries to make introductions. Major Barin gets a quick once over, but that's based on physical presence alone. He's a bit like Teal'c - you can't not look at him when he's standing in the room.

He's not really sure why Vala shuns his new team, but he guesses he's got a fairly good idea.

  
*

She's been back at the SGC for three weeks and despite the okay to have her back on the team, she's not fit for duty yet according to Lam. He doesn't know what it is keeping her from passing the physical. He wants to know, wants to know fairly badly, but he isn't to the point yet of ordering Lam to tell him.

He swings by her quarters at half past eight. She's still sleeping, rumpled and bleary-eyed when she opens the door.

"Feel like a game of basketball?" He asks. She tries to shut the door in his face. Laughing, he forces it open. "Come on. Be good for you."

After a few minutes of prodding, he leaves her to get dressed. She shows up at the basketball court twenty minutes later with a do-nut and coffee. "Can't I just watch you?"

"Nope. Come on, afraid you'll lose? I guess you probably ask rusty..."

"I do not fall for bait, Mitchell." She huffs. "At least not bait laid out in such an unoriginal fashion."

"Fine. Play with me, and you can be back on SG-1."

That perks her up.

But she still loses the game.

She's sullen after that, shrugs him off when he tries subtly ask her what is wrong. She disappears into her quarters and he doesn't see her for the rest of the day.

*

He approaches her quarters again the next day with a sense of dread, like a pilot about to do his first fly-through.

She shocks him again by acting like nothing at all is wrong.

*

"Come keep me company," she says.

Cam knows Vala, and he knows that tone of voice. It should send off warning bells, but instead it just makes him smile.

Damn, he's missed her.

*

He almost drops the bowl of popcorn he's holding when she opens the door. He steps inside in a hurry, blocking the view from anyone that might be passing.

"Vala!" He hisses.

"What?" She gives him an utterly innocent smile.

"That is not what I thought you meant when you said..."

"That I wanted company?" She steps back, and he knows he shouldn't stare, but damn. He's only a man, and she's wearing barely anything at all. An unbuttoned BDU shirt (can't be hers, too long) and underneath a tank top, black and clinging to her breasts, and pink panties. Just the sight of her has his cock stirring but he peels his eyes away and takes a step back. She reaches for him, grasping his hand. "Don't go."

"I didn't come here for sex," he says.

"Fine, we won't have sex. But stay."

It's too quick of a capitulation for Vala, and that throws him. She's looking at him with wide eyes, almost desperate, both hands now clinging to his, and he nods. "Yeah, okay."

*

He's stretched out on her bed. It's past ten and he won't be making it back to his apartment tonight, but that's all right. He's hooked up the Playstation 3 and she's learning how to school him at a couple of the newest games.

They sit side by side, shoulders touching. She's traded the BDU shirt for a t-shirt, but still isn't wearing pants. She claims now that it's a game tactic, not a seduction, but either way it's working. She kills him while he's sneaking a peak for the dozenth or so time.

He tells himself he isn't sure why he didn't make her put on clothes, but all it takes is another quick glance at her thighs to remind him why.

Midnight is nearing when she finally hits the power button. She turns to him, straddles his lap and puts her hands on his shoulder. "Are you going to stop looking and actually do something?"

He puts his hands on her waist, not sure if he should listen to his brain or his dick "I think I already said I wasn't."

"But you want to."

"Vala... I've got eyes, I'm a man. Of course I want to."

She smiles. "Can I offer an opinion?"

"I think I know what your opinion is, Vala."

"Can I offer it anyway?" She kisses him, long and slow, licks into his mouth. He gives over to it, realizing that he really never stood a chance. He was half in love with her before she left the first time, not that he thought she'd even realized, and lately he's perfectly content to spend all of his off time in her presence. That says a lot considering he knows her - knows what a pain in the ass she can be, knows how tricky and slippery, knows what she looks like when she's desperate and when she's angry. He's seen her cold fury and he's seen her turn her back on family. He's watched her while she watched her daughter killed. He knows she puts herself above everyone else, and considering how much of her life has been spent watching someone else control her, he figures she's earned it.

He knows all of this, and he's fine with it, and that's where the hesitation lives and grows. He's been in love before but he's never loved someone he knew he couldn't walk away from, and he's afraid Vala could be that person.

"I have to go," he says, against her mouth.

She whines and puts her head on his shoulder. "Stay."

"What's wrong? What's going on here?" He asks, voice low. He rubs her back in long strokes of his hand.

She rolls off of him, sitting up. For a moment his only view is of her back, shoulders slightly slumped, but when she turns around she's smiling. "I think you're right. It's clearly past your bedtime, Colonel. You should go."

He falls asleep that night alone in his bed on base, half-hard and completely confused.

*

They're not sparring, not exactly, but they are pacing each other, circling. He is only as gentle with her as he thinks he can get away with, but he does pull his punches, slows himself. He can see the frustration in her eyes. She gets winded sooner than she should.

He drops his stick when she starts to cough, silently at first but then loudly, shoulders jerking. She turns away from him and that's his first alert. He crosses the room to her, grasps her when she tries to pull away.

He grabs her wrist when he sees a flash of red. There are spots of blood there, and his stomach clenches. "Vala-"

"No." She says, shaking her head briskly. "Mitchell, don't."

*

He sees her coming out of Dr. Lam's office with something in her hand.

She sees him walking down the hallway and her eyes widen, fingers clutching at the paper bag that crinkles. She forces a smile, but he can tell that it's just that; forced.

*

Jackson shows back up, and Cam's not entirely sure how to deal with all of this. The thing with Vala, whatever it actually is, gets in the way of what would probably be the right thing to do - tell Jackson that Vala's sick, that something is wrong with her, and let him wrangle the truth out of her.

Instead, he says nothing about Vala to Jackson. Of course, Jackson says plenty; he sounds irritated, pissed off, but Cam knows him well enough by now to know that underneath that he feels betrayed.

He says he's taking Vala out for the night and Cam tries hard to pretend like it isn't jealousy keeping his stomach in knots.

*

He stops by to get her for breakfast the next morning.

It's just past six in the morning. He wakes her up, but he's not sorry because she's there and she's alone and that means whatever happened Jackson didn't stay the night.

She glares and yawns and tells him that he's entirely too happy for it to be so early.

*

"You want to get some food later?" Cam asks, all casual.

Vala looks down at the tray of food in front of her, looks around to verify that they are indeed in the cafeteria, and then back at Cam with a quizzical sort of smirk, like maybe he's making a joke. "I was under the impression that what we were doing right now involved food in our possession to very shortly be ingested."

He rolls his eyes. "I meant dinner."

He's not quite casual enough, because she catches something there. "You mean... dinner somewhere that is... not here?"

"I just thought you might be tired of base food," he says.

"Really?" She smirks again, with more confidence this time. "That's all?"

"Of course," Cam says, defending his intentions to no avail.

"You know, Cameron. It's much nicer to tell someone that you're asking them out on a date," she takes a bite of a crunchy lettuce leaf. "It's much more flattering that way."

He thinks about saying no, but hell. He hasn't been able to get her out of his mind since they kissed - or maybe longer. If he's honest with himself, maybe he hasn't been able to get her out of his mind since the day she waltzed down that ramp for the first time and walked up to him like she owned him. Just remembering it gives him a pleasant thrill in the pit of his stomach.

He looks her right in the eye and smiles. "Vala, do you want to go on a date with me?"

She gives him that knee-weakeningly brilliant smile in return. "I'd love to, Cameron."

*

The date has gone well. He knows the date has gone well, because Vala's laughter rings in his ears and her hands are on his ass and her mouth is on his and she's not going to make it back to the base tonight.

He goes to kiss her again, and she shies away. Her mouth is damp and her lips are red, swollen from kisses, from the desperate making out against his door that they'd just indulged in.

"What..." He's breathing heavily, his mind a pleasant blur of skin under his fingertips and her tongue in his mouth and the delicious pressure of her thigh against his hard on.

"Cameron," she puts her hand on his shoulder and smooths out the wrinkles places in his shirt that her fist had grasped. "As much as I would love to get naked and sweaty with you as soon as possible-"

She stops talking because he kisses her again. She laughs and pushes him away. "There's something I need to show you first."

He nods and reaches down, unlocking the door to his apartment.

*

She's more hesitant inside. Her fingers hover at the hem of her shirt, a pretty purple thing that shows off the paleness of her skin and the teasing curve of her breasts. He likes her in that shirt. He thinks he's already told her once, but he'll tell her again. He always rambles on dates. He wishes he had half the smoothness in this area of his life that he does on the field, but Vala's seen both sides of him. He's not too worried.

At least not about that. The look on her face now does worry him some.

He reaches for her hand. "Vala. Honey, you're scaring me a little here. Just come out with it."

She lifts up her shirt.

He swallows hard. "Vala... what..."

Her stomach is a mesh of scars, jagged clumsy tears against the skin and evidence of messy stitching to put her back together. "They thought I still carried the Goa'uld host. They tried to... remove it. To be fair, when they realized that I'd been telling the truth and that there was no host, they did attempt to put things back where they found them."

"But... they didn't?" Cam says, not quite able to believe that she could have her internal organs rearranged and still be up walking and talking to him right now.

"No, they did..." She says it slowly. "But they weren't the most hygienic of situations in which to have a surgery performed."

"Infections." He realizes.

She nods. "Dr. Lam has been treating me, but when one seems to be going away another appears. A bit like men, aren't they? One loses interest and another waltzes right in to take his place... oh, what am I saying? Men never lose interest in me, do they?"

"Vala..."

The attempt at levity fades. "The bacteria isn't the same as what your antibiotics on this planet can treat."

"But she says you'll be okay?" He looks up at her, an earnest question in his voice. "If she didn't think you were going to be all right, she'd say something to me. You're scheduled to go back on mission rotation in two weeks."

Cam isn't sure what it is in his voice that makes her smile at him and reach out, her hand on his cheek. The touch is odd, seems out of place to him, with all he knows of her.

It's nice, though.

He pulls her to him and wraps his arms around her. "You're gonna be okay."

"You don't know that," she says, softly. "My body has been through quite a deal more than it's meant to. Do you know how many times I've died, Cameron? There's no sarcophagus this time."

"You don't need one."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do," he says. "You didn't come back here to... to die."

"I don't know why I came back," she admits, pressing her face to his shoulder. He holds her a little more tightly.

"I do," he says.

She laughs softly. He can feel the shake of her shoulders and her breath against his skin. "Is that so, Colonel Mitchell?"

"Cam," he corrects her. "I like it when you say my name."

"Oh, that I'll remember, Cameron," she says. "Why did I come back?"

"Because you knew someone was waiting on you."

She laughs again. "Well, I don't think Daniel was actually that pleased to see me..."

He rolls his eyes. "You know who I mean."

"Muscles?" She feigns disappointment. "You know, I haven't heard from him, either. Really quite sad."

"Vala..." He playfully pushes her back, but catches her hand before she gets too far away. "I missed you."

She touches his face again, fingers ticklish with a light touch on his cheek. "I'm glad."

He thinks that's Vala-speak for _I missed you, too_ but even if it isn't, even if she didn't think of him while she was gone, that's all right because she's here with him right now.

He kisses her hard enough to chase away the doubts. She makes a noise like someone giving in and grasps him hard, taking control again.

He lifts her shirt up, ignoring the flinch on her face. She lets him do it, take the shirt off of her and then drop it to the ground so he can lean forward and kiss along her shoulder, lick at her collarbone and then down to press his face to the soft flesh spilling over the low cup of her bra. He noses down the fabric, tugs with his teeth and then wraps his lips around a stiff nipple. His palm goes up to over the other, thumb rubbing over the silk clinging to her.

"You know," Vala says in a voice just a little bit thicker than before. "This comes off, as well."

He laughs and drops another kiss between her breasts before his hands move together to find the clasp, undoing it with a moment's work. She shrugs her shoulders and it falls loose to the ground. "Better?"

"Oh, much." She smiles and runs her own hands down her body, stopping to cover the scars. He sees what she's doing and grabs her hands, lifting them away.

"Hey, my turn for show and tell," he says. He yanks his shirt over his head, and then reaches for the buckle on his belt. She waits with uncharacteristic silence while he undresses.

Once his pants are off, he pauses, looks her in the eye, and pushes down his shorts. He's half hard, his cock bobbing slightly between them, but that isn't what he wants her attention on right now.

Her mouth falls open slightly and she steps forward. She can see the long scar running the length of his hip and thigh. "My crash," he says. "In Antarctica."

She looks up at him and smiles and kisses him hard, stepping forward to close the distance between them again. With the distraction of showing her that gone, his body finds a renewed interest in the proximity and within seconds of her tongue on his bottom lip he's rising between them again, nudging against her. She laughs and finds him with her hand, grasping loosely.

He groans. "Shit, Vala... look, I just want to warn you... it's been a while."

She lifts her eyebrow delicately. "How long is a while?"

"Long enough." He kisses her again hoping to distract. It works because she lets it work, because she's found something more interesting than talking at the moment. "I think something isn't fair about this here..."

She pushes him against the bed until he sits down, and then tugs the hidden zip of her skirt until it falls. Cam groans out loud, because she's not wearing anything underneath. "Vala-" He chokes out her name.

"What? Dates end in sex, don't they? Isn't that the cultural norm on this planet?" She's teasing him. He knows it, and he doesn't care, because she's smiling again. "I was merely... eliminating an unnecessary part of the process."

"Well, in that case, I should thank you," Cam says.

"You should," she agrees, and steps in closer. He's sitting and she's standing, stepping so that her feet are on the outside of his, thighs spread over him. He breathes in deep and kisses her stomach, her hip bone, while his hands cup the soft, smooth flesh of her ass. She makes a high whining sound and he drops a hand to the back of her knee and guides it up onto the bed.

"I like where this is going," she murmurs, and then she doesn't say anything because Cam's mouth is on her, his tongue sliding along damp skin, tasting her, dipping inside before he drags it up to her clit and sucks lightly. She sucks in a breath and presses closer, one hand sliding through his short cropped hair to cup the back of his head with splayed fingers.

It's good but it isn't enough, he can't reach enough like this and she's not getting what she wants. Vala's never one to settle for less than what she wants, of course, so he's not surprised when a firm touch pushes him back until he's laying on the bed. She crawls over him and settles above him, giving him a better angle to work with.

He grasps her ass enthusiastically and pulls her down onto him, eager to taste her completely. He slides two fingers between her lips and finds her damp, but he wants more than that, he wants her to come before he's inside of her so if he doesn't last she'll have still gotten something out of it. He presses the fingers into her and feels her clench around him.

His cock is thick and rigid, precome oozing out of the tip and smearing stickling into the hair on his stomach. He ignores it for now; he's too close, too ramped up from the taste and the scent of her. He starts to rock his fingers into her, thrusting with them as she shudders and moves against him, working with him to get her there. He's surprised at how responsive she is. He can't see her face from here, but he can feel how focused she is, can feel the lack of inhabitation. He moans against her and flicks his tongue over her clit, feeling the spasms start from the inside and then her muted gasp as she starts to come.

He works her through it, easing her down with little kitten licks on her skin, sliding his fingers out when he can tell she's finished. She rolls off of him bonelessly and drops to the bed, eyes shut and a smile on her face.

He leans over her, a hand on her stomach, and she opens her eyes. They just stare at each other and the moment feels crushingly intimate, but it's a weight Cam doesn't mind. He kisses her and she responds softly, some of the urgency from before dulled. He likes her like this, pliable and sweet, almost.

But he hasn't had the satiation that she's blissed out on, and he can't maintain the relaxed pace for long. She laughs at him and looks down between them and where his cock is pressing against her hip. "Something you want, darling?"

She's moving before he can even answer, the drowsiness in her limbs gone like it was never there. She straddles him just above his pelvis and his cock is trapped between them, surrounded by dampness and warmth, just the head peaking out from where their bodies meet. The sight of that makes him jerk and she lets out a throaty little moan of pleasure at the feeling of him against her still sensitive clit. She puts her hands on the bed to brace her weight and starts to move, rocking herself over him, a slow pleasurable slide that is almost a mimic of what it would feel like to actually be inside of her. Cam's breathing more heavily and he doesn't think he can take much of this but he doesn't want to tell her to stop either. She's biting her bottom lip like it's really getting to her and Cam wonders, can't help asking, "Are you gonna..."

"I think," she stops to gasp, "I might..."

He urges her on, summing up his own willpower, every last bit of restraint not to lose it as she starts to go faster, the wetness from her orgasm making it a deliciously frictionless thing, her clit rubbing against the ridge at the head of his cock at the end of every firm stroke of her cunt against him. There's pinkness high on her cheeks and he throws all of his concentration to that, to looking at her as she moves more frantically, her fingers grasping the covers tightly and balling the material in her fists. "Come on," he says, reaching up and rubbing her nipples, cupping her breasts in his palms.

She's louder this time, voicing her pleasure more clearly.

"You feel so good," Cam says, accent thickening with his own pleasure. "You look so beautiful, baby, come on. I want to watch you come this time."

"Yes..." She pleads with her mouth open, lips wet and red. Little gasps and noises come out, and then a full throated moan and she stills on him, pressing down hard, her body shaking with it. "Oh... oh."

He pushes her hair back from her face and pulls her down for a kiss. "Vala, honey, I need..."

"Yes, I want... I want this." She leans back and grasps him, his cock slick and gleaming and as hard as he can ever remember being.

She nods blindly, and they move up the bed until he can reach out to the drawer that has a box of condoms in it. He grabs one and Vala immediately plucks it out of his grasp. She studies it for a moment, and then rips it open with her teeth, letting it fall out. It hits his stomach and he wonders if aliens have condoms, but she seems to know what to do with it well enough. He's the one clutching at the covers on the bed when she touches him again, sliding the latex down over him. He has to close his eyes to the visual of her over him, breasts bouncing as she moves, the flat plane of her stomach rippling when she bends.

He wants to do this later again alter with her underneath him, but right now he doesn't mind letting her set the pace. He enjoys the view he has right now; her body, over his, her hand holding him up to guide herself down onto him. He holds his breath as just the tip slides inside, the tight grip of her body almost overwhelming his ability to hold back. He releases the breath when he's inside her completely, her body flush with his again. She settles for a moment, just stays there letting herself adjust, and then she starts to move. He's not far behind her, feet firmly on the bed so he can thrust into her. He can feel sweat on his forehead, and her hands are on his chest, fingers digging into his skin. He doesn't mind the bite of pain along with the pleasure he's finding inside of her. "Vala... come here..."

She leans into him now and he loves it like this, feeling her so closely. Her breasts press against his chest, her mouth on his again, tongue wet and eager in his mouth as she her body drives him closer and closer.

"Vala, I can't-" His mind is working, thinking how he can buy himself a little more time. He could move, change position, but he doesn't want to be out of her, just wants to let go.

"Do it," she urges, moving harder and faster, like she knows what will get him there. His body understands before his mind even really does, or maybe he was just that close and it would have happened either way, but he feels the surge of heat through his body, the tightly coiling instinct springing free, his cock jerking and spilling inside of her, filling the condom. He's sure the sounds coming out of his mouth would embarrass him any other time, but Vala just urges him on, telling him what she wants from him in a low, throaty voice.

It feels like it's over too soon and he's loose with pleasure, his cock softening inside of her. She stays over him, on him, kisses slowing to something almost tender. He hugs her to him, ignoring the sweat slicking both of their bodies. He can see the exhaustion in her face, and realizes that no matter how vibrant she seems that this has still exhausted her. He feels suddenly, fiercely protective and maybe it's the orgasm or maybe it's just the fact that she's here but his mouth opens and he has no idea what he's going to say, he just wants her to _know_.

"Vala..." He starts to speak, but she kisses him again and shakes her head.

He gets it, he thinks; Vala's a big fan of words except when it counts, and right now it counts. Maybe her way is better. Maybe they don't really need to say anything.

She moves off of him into the bathroom and while she's gone he takes care of the condom, pulls back the covers on the bed and then grabs a couple of bottles of water from the kitchen. When she comes back, she moves easily into his arms.

*

Monday morning sees them all gathered back around the conference table.

General Landry requests that Vala be there. She sits beside Cam, poking and prodding and being a general nuisance, but underneath the table she has her ankle wrapped over his.

He tries his best to ignore her, not out of irritation but because he can't look at her without smiling.


End file.
